Earthlings bid farewell to the Cassini spacecraft tonight as
the Saturn-bound mission successfully completed a highly accurate
pass of Earth at 8:28 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (03:28 Universal
Time August 18). The flyby gave Cassini a 5.5-kilometer-per-
second (about 12,000-mile-per-hour) boost in speed, sending the
spacecraft on toward the ringed planet more than 1 billion
kilometers (almost one billion miles) away.

Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed that
the spacecraft flew past Earth at an altitude of about 1,171
kilometers (727 miles), passing most closely above the eastern
South Pacific at -23.5 degrees latitude and 231.5 degrees
longitude. Cassini may have been visible from small islands in
that area, such as Pitcairn Island or Easter Island.

The spacecraft remains in excellent health as it continues
along its seven-year-long journey to Saturn. Having completed
its cruise among the inner planets, Cassini's future now resides
in the cold, dark realm of the outer planets. The spacecraft
will pass by Jupiter on December 30, 2000; the giant planet's
gravity will bend Cassini's flight path to put it on course for
arrival into orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004.

Cassini's mission is to study Saturn, its moons, elaborate
rings, and its magnetic and radiation environment for four years.
Cassini will also deliver the European Space Agency's Huygens
probe to parachute to the surface of Saturn's moon Titan. Titan
is of special interest partly because of its many Earthlike
characteristics, including a mostly nitrogen atmosphere and the
presence of organic molecules in the atmosphere and on its
surface. Lakes or seas of ethane and methane may exist on its
surface.

The Cassini/Huygens program is a joint endeavor of NASA, the
European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Cassini
orbiter, built by NASA, and the Huygens probe, provided by the
European Space Agency (ESA), were mated together and launched as
a single package from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on October 15,
1997. Cassini's dish-shaped high-gain antenna was provided for
the mission by the Italian Space Agency. At Saturn, the Huygens
probe will detach from Cassini to parachute to the surface of
Titan on November 30, 2004.

Nine of Cassini's 12 science instruments were turned on to
make observations of the Earth/Moon system. Scientific and
engineering data from the Earth flyby will be transmitted by
Cassini to receiving stations of NASA's Deep Space Network over
coming days.

The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, CA. JPL is a division of the California Institute of
Technology. More information about the Cassini mission is
available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini .